After installing mods and ENB settings, some changes need to be made before
launching Oblivion. If you launch Fallout 3 before making these changes, the game
will most likely not start, and if it does, it definitely will not
be able to load a save-game without CTD.With the exception of number 1, these changes are absolutely necessary for Fallout 3 to work
after modding.

Having a fast and stable system is absolutely necessary to run a heavily modded
Fallout 3. If you have a high-end system, you should have nothing to worry
about, even with all mods installed. But if you have a semi-old or medium-spec
system (like mine), it will be put to the test, so you want to give Fallout 3 the
best possible conditions to get the most out of it. If you already have a
fast and stable system, proceed to the driver settings instead.

Cleaning/optimizing
Windows is of course a huge subject, so I will not go into
details, but rather give suggestions what to look out for. This is written for Windows 7
x64, but most things apply to XP/Vista/Win8/Win10 (32/64bit) as well.

1: Make sure your system is virus/mal-ware
free. (It's a given, but I'm writing it anyway)2: Have as few unnecessary programs running in the background as possible.
Preferably non.3: Never have real-time anti-virus programs running. They slow down any computer
with at least 10-20%, and most of them does an extremely poor job at protecting
against viruses anyway. The best way to protect a computer
against mal-ware and viruses, is by having a great firewall, preferably at
router level, so nothing gets to the computer in the first place.4: If you have to use a firewall at computer level (Not all routers have
great firewalls), use one that doesn't require a lot of resources, and turn off
Windows built-in firewall & services. I can recommend
Comodo Firewall. It's free, and
comes in both 32 and 64bit versions.5: Get rid of all junk-driver-programs. Keep the drivers of course, but
uninstall or disable all the useless services that constantly run in the
background. Like scanner, printer or audio "service" programs that comes with
the drivers.6: Get rid of junk-apps. Weather apps, search bars and joke apps etc.,
They use your connection to bring you useless commercials and junk, which takes
up recourses.7: Get rid of PunkBuster, if you have it. Go to services, and check if "PnkBstrA" and/or "PnkBstrB"
are running. If they are, stop and disable them. (Control Panel ->
Administrative Tools -> Services) *If you use Comodo Firewall, you can block PunkBuster
from ever being installed again, and prohibit execution of any PunkBuster
services. You would be surprised how many games silently install this junk
program.8: Clean the temp-files. I can recommend
CClean. It's
free, and comes in both 32 and 64bit versions.9: Check Windows Start-up list. I can recommend
CClean for this
too. (Tools - Startup)10: Clean Windows Task Scheduler. Get rid of all the useless checks that
makes your system slow down at randomly when Windows hit a timer. (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Task
Scheduler)11: Don't use iTunes. Besides being the slowest, most featureless,
incompatible, ugly, and absolute worst media player
ever made, it will also decrease performance on any system, and try to run the
weirdest and most useless tasks at random. Stay far away from any Apple
products. No offence about running Apple products on Apple machines, I guess
it's a match, but Apple is just not capable of writing efficient code at PC
standard.12: Stop and disable useless background services.
(Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services)12-1: Stop and disable all junk-services, like updaters and support services from
drivers and programs. (Examples: Acronis Scheduler2 Service, Adobe Acrobat
Update Service, Creative Audio Service, Skype Updater,
SwitchBoard, Google Updater, etc..)12-2: Disable the worst Microsoft services. Like: Application Experience, Background Intelligent
Transfer Service, IP Helper, Internet
Connection Sharing (ICS), Media Center Extender Service, Office Source Engine,
Offline Files, Program Compatibility Assistant Service, Remote Registry, Routing
and Remote Access, Superfetch, Tablet PC Input Service, Windows Firewall (Most
useless firewall ever made), Windows Media Center Receiver Service, Windows
Media Center Scheduler Service, Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service,
Windows Search (This has nothing to do with "Search", it's just another name for
the horrible and complete useless "indexing service").13: If you have a multi-core CPU, like a Core-i5 or i7, make sure to disable Core
parking. (Google how, there are lots of guides)14: Always have the latest graphics card drivers installed. Don't use the
ones from Windows update. Go to the manufactures website and download the latest
drivers specifically for your card.15: Update Direct-X, XNA Framework, Visual C++ Redistributables and .NET Framework.
All these can be found at the
Microsoft Download Center.

Windows 10 specific tips

2 - Drivers Settings

This only applies for nVidia drivers. If you have
an ATI or an Intel graphic card, you might want to Google how to set the same settings.

Open up the nVidia Control Panel, and go to "Manage 3D settings". Then
click the
"Program Settings" tab, and add the "FalloutLauncher.exe".
*If you have the Steam version of Fallout 3, you need to apply the same settings
to the Fallout 3 Shortcut.
Set the following parameters:
Antialiasing - FXAA
(Off or Application-controlled)
Antialiasing - Gamma correction
(Off or Application-controlled)
Antialiasing - Mode
(Off or Application-controlled)
Antialiasing - Setting
(Application-controlled)
Antialiasing - Transparency
(Off)*ENB has it's own AA settings, so no worries, AA will be
active anyway. If you enable the driver AA, ENB will be disabled completely.Threaded Optimization
(On)
*If you don't have a multi-core CPU, set this: "Off"Vertical sync
(On)*If you prefer
higher FPS instead of tear-free smooth game-play, set this: "Off"

*ENB also has an option for handling V-sync, but I prefer nVidia's V-sync. If you want
to use the ENB V-sync instead, just go to the Fallout 3 game folder and open up "enblocal.ini"
with a notepad and find:
EnableFPSLimit=false
Change this to:
EnableFPSLimit=true

3
- Load-Order

Info: The load-order is a list that determines in which order Fallout 3
loads additional content. (Mods) The load-order has 255 slots which are loaded into the
memory one by one in the exact order they are listed. If identical data
appears (If two mods contain the same data), the last listed mod will overwrite
whatever came first. Also, if a mod has references to another mod, this other
mod HAS to be listed in the load-order BEFORE the mod with the dependency. If a mod is
depending on something that is missing or listed later in the load-order,
Fallout 3
will either not load those mods, load them with errors, or not even start up.
This fact makes it VERY important to have a 100% correct load-order. Besides dependencies, some mods edit the same location space cells too,
and often have different lighting settings, even if the mod has nothing to do
with lighting. This doesn't cause the game to crash, but it might cause
graphical, lighting or weather errors. Having a correct load-order is
absolutely necessary for Fallout 3 to work.

It would take a long
time to write about all the dependencies and references for each mod, so I have put the load-order in text below
instead.

This load-order contains ALL mods. If you for instance only installed mods with
black and green text, no
worries, you just won't find all the items listed below in your own load-order.
Whenever you stumble upon a missing item, just skip it, but keep everything else
in the exact same order. It's a boring task, sorry, but it's absolutely necessary
and you only need to do it once.

Load-order location: "C:\Users\(USERNAME)\AppData\Local\Fallout3\Plugins.txt"
You can edit it in a notepad, but it's easier to use NMM, as you can see which mods
are active/deactivated.

Correct Load-Order:Start NMM and click the "Plugins" tab. Then sort everything according to
this list

In
order to use the Fallout 3 Script Extender (FOSE), Fallout 3 needs to be launched via the
FOSE
launcher instead of the original Fallout 3 launcher.

Fallout 3 Steam version: If you haven't already done so, then go the the Fallout 3 game folder and rename "FalloutLauncher.exe"
to "FalloutLauncher.exe.backup". Then rename "fose_loader.exe" to "FalloutLauncher.exe".

Fallout 3 any non-Steam version: Open the Fallout
3 game folder and make a
desktop shortcut to "fose_loader.exe". Use this shortcut to start
Fallout 3 from now on.

- END OF LINE -

Fallout 3 is ready for launch!
*If you CTD on the very first
load, don't worry. CTDs
sometimes happen at the very first launch after file changes. This
happens because of inconsistency with game-cache. Start Fallout 3 up again, and everything
will be fine.